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tools & materials ■ DUST COLLECTION Use your dust collector to clean the shop A DUST COLLECTOR IS MUCH MORE POWERFUL than a shop vacuum, so why not use the larger power plant for shop cleanup? That’s the thought behind Rockler’s Dust Right Master System ($70). The heart of this set of accessories is a floor sweep—consisting of a handle, a long tube, and a floor attachment—that connects to your 4-in.-dia. dust hose. A smaller bench nozzle with bristles is designed for tidying work surfaces. To make it easy to free up your dust hose, the system includes a quick-connect tool port that stays on one shop machine. I teamed up the system with Rockler’s innovative Dust Right Expandable Hose ($50), which stretches from 3 ft. to 21 ft. I used the hose and Master System to vacuum my shop, and it worked great, but only after I made a key alteration. The floor sweep comes with a thin grate to prevent large pieces of wood or bits of metal from getting sucked in and possibly striking the impeller of a dust collector. However, I found that big chips and hand-tool shavings clogged the grating constantly, so eventually I knocked it out. After that, cleanup went quickly and easily. You can buy the floor sweep ($40) and other parts separately at www.rockler.com. —Asa Christiana is the editor. ■ CLAMPS Bessey’s new K Body parallel clamp BESSEY TOOLS HAS IMPROVED its K Body parallel clamp. The K Body Revo has some advantages over the original. For starters, each jaw has the same great parallel action, but 30% more surface area. A larger, softgrip handle adds comfort and makes it easier to add extra clamping force. Bessey claims the K Body Revo gets you 1,500 lb. of clamping pressure, 30% more than its old model. When we measured the Revo clamp force using three woodworkers as testers, we got a maximum force of 1,000 lb., with 800 lb. as an average—still a lot more than the 600 lb. we got from the original. The K Body Revo includes a plastic end piece that keeps the bar from tipping when the jaws are working close together. The piece is removable, allowing the jaw to be removed and reversed, turning the clamp into a spreader. In use, the sliding jaw moved smoothly along the bar in both directions. The jaw gripped the workpiece as soon as I began turning the handle—no fiddling to get it to “bite” into the bar. The Revo is sold in eight lengths, from 12 in. to 98 in. ranging from $36 to $72 in price. Look for more information at www. besseytools.com. —T.B. Better Bessey. A new parallel clamp from Bessey improves on the original K Body. 22 FINE WOODWORKING continued Serious suction. Harnessing the power of your dust collector, the Dust Right Master System makes short work of a chipstrewn floor. Combined with the Dust Right Expandable Hose, it can reach into every corner. Grate isn’t great. Before Christiana removed it, the grate in the floor sweep needed to be unclogged about every 10 seconds.